i want to know which is better for cleaning the thermal compound found on cpus and chipsets, isopropyl alcohol or acetone? i went and bought 91% isopropyl alcohol and 100% acetone. im thinking isopropyl alcohol is rubbing alcohol and acetone is nail polish remover, correct me if im wrong. well please let me know which one is best to use thanks.

I use lacquer thinner, which is a mixture of a number of solvents. I believe one of them is acetone. Either will work.

The problem with highly active solvents is that it may remove labels and damage plastics and finishes and may be highly flammable.

Fred is correct, you do need to be cautious when using lacquer thinner or acetone. A small amount will usually suffice.

I would steer clear of acetone. They used to put it in nail varnish remover but not anymore as to proved to be to damaging to nails. Isotropy alcohol will do the job just as well. Stuart

This page (actually the ones following this page) have great info on your question. http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_... It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. - Mark Twain

From the link provided above: "You can adequately clean the remnants with a xylene based cleaner, (Goof Off and some carburetor cleaners) or high-purity isopropyl alcohol. If you use Goof off or xylene based cleaners always follow up with a cleaning of high-purity isopropyl alcohol afterwards. NEVER use any oil or petroleum based cleaners (WD-40, citrus oil based cleaners and many automotive degreasers) on the base of a heatsink. The oil, which is engineered to not evaporate, will fill in the microscopic valleys in the metal and significantly reduce the effectiveness of any subsequently applied thermal compound."